Showing 1 - 8 of 8
In Cannes, it's cinema as usual
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/05/2022
» After the cancellation in 2020 and a bump to the month of July in 2021 -- with smaller attendance as international travel was still interrupted -- the Cannes Film Festival returns to its usual mid-May slot, keyed up and fully prepped to show the world that it's cinema, and the cinema business, as usual.
A long crusade against healthcare woes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/04/2021
» Colectiv, a Romanian documentary film nominated for two Oscars, watches in terror as the Romanian healthcare system practically collapses before the camera. The film elicits a series of gasps, as one shocking revelation leads to another, and another: procurement frauds, bureaucratic incompetence, corruption, nepotism, murder, mass bribery, healthcare mafia, maggots crawling on the head of a patient -- a living patient -- and finally, an election whose preposterous results ring too many familiar bells.
Old boyz n the Charoen Krung hood
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/08/2018
» The boys once ruled Charoen Krung Road -- the boyz from the hood, sons of Chinese merchants and Muslim roti-makers, rough-around-the-edges teen bred and drilled in the network of sois, who leapt into the Chao Phraya every evening and caught catfish when the river swelled every November, who roamed Bang Rak market when it was still sludgy with vegetable scraps and sneaked into the Prince Rama Theatre when it was still showing, err, adult movies.
Going S44 cold turkey is going to hurt
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/08/2016
» There's a Thai phrase, fon lai chang, the rain that chases out the elephant. But the heavy rain on Wednesday night managed to chase out something bigger than an elephant: the Bangkok governor. I hear people popping champagne corks.
Spotlight shines bright
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/01/2016
» Journalistic courage is a timely topic, and the example given by the team in Spotlight shows how legwork, doggedness and conviction can rattle the pillars of the establishment when society needs it.
8 of the best
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/01/2016
» The 40th Toronto International Film Festival wrapped last Sunday. Although a non-competitive event -- meaning there were no juries -- the festival did have a People's Choice Award voted for by viewers, which this year went to Lenny Abrahamson's abduction drama Room (last year it was The Imitation Game, which went on to earn several Oscar nominations).
Film fete case shows glacial pace of reform
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/08/2015
» It’s about time. The case has been cold but not closed, and justice delayed is more consoling than justice abandoned. After eight years, the Office of the Attorney General finally charged Juthamas Siriwan, ex-governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), for allegedly taking 60 million baht in kickbacks from an American firm in exchange for a contract to run the ill-fated Bangkok International Film Festival between 2003 and 2007. She has 15 days to show her face at the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, or face an arrest warrant.
Going missing a fate darker than death
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/04/2015
» To disappear is worse than to die, because death is at least a form of closure, or at least an answer. To disappear is to be suspended in limbo, to enter the void, to become non-existent. With death, you could become a ghost. By disappearing, you become nothing.